Plus, Amazon brings lawsuit against 10,000 Facebook groups
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 Pimco headquarters. U.S. investment management giant Pimco has purchased over €1B ($1B) worth of loans, which were used by Apollo, another U.S. firm, to underwrite its purchase of French payments company Worldline. The purchase has taken place at a large discount. More: - Pimco's decision to purchase the debt comes as banks around the world face tens of billions of dollars in losses due to bridge loans that were signed before the recent market slump.
- In leveraged buyouts, banks will underwrite debt prior to selling it to other investors. This generates risks for the underwriters, as they can experience losses if the investors to whom they sell the debt demand a lower price than expected.
- Before its latest €1B purchase, Pimco bought €500M in debt used to back Morrisons, a British supermarket. The debt was sold at 85 cents on the euro and has slid in value even further after the deal.
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 Twitter's request to expedite the trial in its lawsuit against Elon Musk has been approved by the Delaware Court of Chancery. The ruling will see the trial take place over five days in October. More: - Kathleen McCormick, chancellor of Delaware Court of Chancery, granted a request made by Twitter to expedite the lawsuit that is intended to force Elon Musk to honor his agreement to purchase the company.
- Musk agreed to purchase all the shares in Twitter for $54.20 per share, totaling $44B. The agreement took place in April.
- Musk has since attempted to pull out of the deal, claiming that it was based on a false valuation of the company.
- Twitter subsequently sued Musk for allegedly changing his mind because the deal "no longer serves his personal interest."
- Twitter put in a request for an expedited four-day trial, which Musk and his legal team tried to block.
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China's ownership of U.S. debt has dropped below $1T for the first time since May 2010. The threshold was broken as China attempts to diversify its holdings of foreign debt. More: - China's holdings of U.S. treasuries dropped by $23B since April.
- Increased interest rates have made U.S. Treasurys less attractive to investors.
- In June, the Fed hiked its overnight borrowing rates by 0.75 percentage points and is expected to increase them again next week.
- China's holdings of U.S. treasuries have declined by $100B since this time last year.
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 A meeting of the French National Assembly. AP. The French government is preparing to purchase a 100% stake in its domestic energy giant EDF for €9.7B ($9.7B). The move comes as France attempts to shore up the firm's financial situation and improve its performance in the face of the ongoing European energy crisis. More: - France intends to nationalize EDF because of the nuclear energy company's strategic importance to the French nation. In total, the government has set aside €12.7B to purchase and improve the company, but the decision still requires approval from Parliament.
- France has recently been forced to import new energy after EDF experienced problems with some of its reactors.
- The government intends to support EDF's project to construct six new nuclear reactors, the firm's largest order in over 20 years.
- French officials have also stated that they want to expedite the energy giant's ability to make decisions in order to achieve the country's long-term carbon emissions reduction strategy.
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The administrators of 10,000 Facebook groups will face a lawsuit filed by Amazon on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that the groups in question brokered fake reviews on the product pages of Amazon's e-commerce platform. More: - The Facebook groups in question allegedly allowed bad actors to give money and goods to Amazon customers in exchange for fake product reviews.
- Meta, Facebook's parent company, has removed half of the 10,000 groups that were targeted by Amazon's lawsuit and has launched investigations into the others.
- Amazon's new filing follows legal action in 2015, which the company claims was able to "Shut down multiple major review brokers."
- Amazon filed its latest lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle.
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Jeffries Financial Group Inc. is planning to sell its holdings of Idaho Timber for $239M and then separate itself from its oil-and-gas operations by spinning off Vitesse energy. The moves come as Jefferies consolidates itself around its investment banking business. More: - A major stake in Jeffries financial group was purchased by asset management firm Leucadia International in 2008.
- During the 2008 debt crisis in Europe, concerns circulated that Leucadia was overexposed to the European market.
- The merged entity was subsequently renamed Jeffries in 2018. It began to sell its interests in National Beef and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which were brought into the merged entity by Leucadia.
- During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeffries' investment banking operations doubled its revenue from 2019. Much of the growth came from the boost in corporate-deal making that took place during that period.
- Jefferies' revenue subsequently fell by 31% during its last fiscal quarter, which has prompted it to avoid over-extending itself and consolidate its business around its core investment banking operations.
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 |  | Gregory Bridgman is a writer and researcher with an academic background in politics and the philosophy of science and technology. He holds a BA from the University of Cape Town, an MS from University College London, and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in climate issues, technological changes, and the implications of the fourth industrial revolution. Please feel free to contact me at gregory@inside.com! | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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